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Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Ancient Doors in India

A few photographs of ancient doors, some of them centuries old. Some are carved, some plain, some with heavy bolts.
This one is an ancient door at Bibi Ka Maqbara in Aurangabad in India. The door is made of brass. It is intricately carved and it is huge as it is to the entrance of the tomb.

This heavy wooden door with various decorations is from an old 18th century temple in Sadashiv Peth in Pune city. The thick brass ring in the centre of the door serves as a means to knock on the door as electricity was not available at the time at this temple was built.

This is a giant door from an ancient fort belonging to the Purandare family of Saswad. It still belongs to them, but the fort lies unused and in ruins. However the perimeter is intact and so is the massive iron door designed to keep out intruders and invaders. Opening it is a herculean task and it's best to make one's way in and out through a small trapdoor on the bottom left of the massive door. This door would be 12-16 feet high. The doors had spikes right on the top too, to prevent enemy elephants from trying to break it down.

This is a close-up of the spikes of the door. You can see how sharp these long pointed cone shaped iron spikes really are!

This photo is of the bottom of a gigantic iron door at Golconda (Golkonda) Fort in Hyderabad, a Fort built by Hindu Kakatiya dynasty . The thick iron gate and the protrusions on the door were to keep invaders at bay.

The rest of the pictures are of plain wooden doors from ancient monuments. This one is from the many doors of the rooms inside the Taj Mahal in Agra, India. Bolts were usually made of heavy iron or brass and the doors were wooden with brass decorations. Often these doors were tall and therefore some of them had the bolt fasterners at the bottom.

A simple wooden door at the Red Fort in Agra. The bolt or "kadi" is at the top of the door as the fastener.

Just a plain locked door at the Agra Fort with an iron bar to fortify it. Not sure whether this is indeed a centuries old door, or whether it is comparatively newer, but still old. A simple chained "kadi" or the typical ancient type of bolt (not seen in modern doors) is at the middle of the door. The metal bar appears to have been added later to stop people from accessing the door.